Daily Strike — Morning Edition

This edition covers the window from Monday noon through midnight Eastern on July 13 — a thirteen-hour span in which congressional accountability pressure on the Iran campaign, a new European defense coalition, and an energy-market spike driven by the Strait of Hormuz all moved in parallel.

Top Stories

1. Senators Press Pentagon on Iran School Strike

A group of Democratic senators sent a letter to the Defense Department Monday demanding it release the findings of its probe into the February 28 airstrike on a girls’ school in Iran, Defense News reported. Iranian officials have called the strike a war crime; the Pentagon maintains it does not intentionally target civilians. The demand comes as operations continue to expand — the Hormuz blockade was reinstated Monday and U.S. forces struck Abadan’s oil hub over the weekend. The Jerusalem Post noted Iranian officials have made the school strike central to their international messaging. The Pentagon had not responded as of Monday evening.

2. Ukraine and Allies Form Anti-Ballistic-Missile Coalition

Ukraine and a group of Western allies formally launched a new coalition Monday aimed at countering Russia’s escalating ballistic missile campaign, Al Jazeera reported. Russia has intensified ballistic missile use in recent weeks, exploiting a critical shortage of Ukrainian air defenses. The coalition is designed to pool procurement, intelligence-sharing, and intercept capacity. The launch follows Ukraine’s strikes on 15 Russian vessels and a sustained drone offensive against Moscow-area oil infrastructure that has strained Russian energy supply.

3. Oil Surges 5% as Hormuz Blockade Returns

Brent crude rose 5% Monday after President Trump announced the reinstatement of a 20% toll on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, framing it as a “safety and security” charge, the Guardian reported. Global equity markets fell in tandem as investors priced in sustained disruption to one of the world’s highest-volume chokepoints. OPEC’s earlier 2026 demand forecast downgrade adds further ambiguity to the demand side of the crude equation.

Markets

Brent crude ended Monday up approximately 5% on the Hormuz announcement. Equities broadly lower. The simultaneous rise in oil and fall in stocks suggests markets are reading the blockade reinstatement as stagflationary — an energy cost shock without a growth catalyst. Traders will be watching tanker movement data through the strait in the next 24 hours as the first real-world test of blockade compliance.

Secondary Fronts

• EU sanctions veto: Bulgaria blocked the European Union’s proposed sanctions on Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the founder of Lukoil, Russia’s largest private oil company, ending both measures under EU unanimity rules, OilPrice.com reported. The veto is a significant victory for Moscow’s EU lobbying effort.

• Russia’s energy vulnerability: Ukraine’s drone offensive against Russian oil refinery infrastructure has “found a sixth gear,” Foreign Policy reported, with Kyiv’s campaign now disrupting Russian refinery capacity and constraining Kremlin revenue at a moment of high global oil-price volatility.

• U.S. sea drones in combat: American maritime drones conducted their first-ever combat operations against Iranian port infrastructure, a threshold that marks a meaningful expansion of the tools the U.S. is deploying in the theater.

• Tehran retaliates regionally: Iran struck targets in Bahrain and Kuwait in response to the latest round of U.S. strikes, widening the geographic footprint of the conflict beyond Iran’s own territory.

What to Watch Tomorrow

1. The Pentagon’s response — or continued silence — on the senators’ demand for the Iran school strike investigation report.
2. Ukraine coalition specifics: which nations signed on, what procurement commitments were made, and whether any early intercept deployments are announced.
3. Hormuz shipping data: tanker transits through the strait in the 24 hours following the blockade reinstatement will be the first hard indicator of compliance and of Iran’s counter-posture.

What We’re Tracking But Haven’t Published On Yet

Iran’s formal government response to the Hormuz blockade reinstatement has not yet produced an official statement in the window covered here. Tehran’s retaliatory posture — having already struck Bahrain and Kuwait — remains the primary escalation variable heading into Tuesday morning. We are also watching whether the Ukraine anti-missile coalition produces concrete procurement announcements or remains a political framework at launch, and monitoring EU member-state reaction to the Bulgarian veto.

Tip the Desk

Documents, sources, or information on any of the above can reach us at tips@americastrikes.com.

— The America Strikes desk